


Never as Bad as You Think

by StrangerAlexeiThings (orphan_account)



Series: {{Алексей}} [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alexei (Stranger Things) Lives, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Background Joyce Byers, Eventual Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Everybody Lives, M/M, Minor Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-22 23:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20000050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/StrangerAlexeiThings
Summary: Uh..... Murray comes back home.. we find out some of Alexei’s story... yeah..





	Never as Bad as You Think

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys!! This is the second part of the {{Алексей}} series, so if you haven’t read the first part you should read it before you read this. Also, I’ve tried to make this more interesting than the first one by adding a little bit more detail.

It had been almost two weeks since Murray got shot, and Alexei had visited him in the hospital every single day. Murray was feeling much better, and the doctors told him that if nothing changed, he would be ready to leave tomorrow. That night, Murray lay awake, wondering what would happen next. They had closed the gate at Starcourt, but if the Russians had opened the gate once, surely they could do it again. As soon as he started thinking about this, he immediately told himself to stop worrying. Tomorrow he was going home, and that was all he needed to focus on right now. That morning, at exactly 9:00, Alexei drove to the hospital to pick up Murray. He could barely contain his excitement that Murray would be home soon. He drove as fast as he could without getting pulled over, and as soon as he had parked the car he ran inside, nodding at the receptionist before heading up to Murray’s room. The receptionist would have questioned him, but he had come every day, and she could easily remember him. When Alexei got to Murray’s room, he found Murray waiting by the door. “Murray!” cried Alexei. “It’s great to see you again!” “You saw me yesterday,” says Murray, but his smile is just as big as Alexei’s. “Are you all ready to go?” Alexei asks. “Yup. I can’t wait to get out of this darned hospital.” “It wasn’t that bad, was it?” “At least I got to see you every day.” Murray hesitates awkwardly. “We should get going now,” he says. The two men walk out of the hospital together and they get in the car. Even though it’s Murray’s car, he lets Alexei drive them home. No one talks much on the ride, and when they get out of the car, Alexei makes Murray wait outside while he gets something from the house. A few moments later, he emerges from the doorway carrying a cake, and on the top he had written, in English, ‘Get Well Soon’. “I was going to bring it to you in the hospital,” explained Alexei, “But they wouldn’t let me bring in any food.” “You didn’t have to make me anything,” Murray protests, but inside he’s just happy that someone cared. Alexei grins. “It made me happy to make something for you.” Murray’s smile grows even bigger, and he and Alexei walk in the house. It looks the same as it was when Murray last saw it, but only now does he fully appreciate it. “Finally,” he sighed. “I’ll get to be home again, without all those god darned doctors telling me what to do all the time.” Murray looks over and notices Alexei fiddling with the telephone. “What are you doing?” he asks. “Joyce called earlier. I couldn’t understand much of it, but I think it was something about you. She left a message.” “I’ll check it out.” Murray goes over to the phone, until he’s standing right next to Alexei. Alexei hands Murray the phone, and their fingers brush. Murray tries to say something to fill the silence, but he gives up and pretends nothing happened. After all, he thinks, it was probably just an accident. He listens to the voicemail from Joyce, and he sighs audibly. “What’s wrong?” asks Alexei. “Joyce and Jim are coming, and they said they’re bringing their kids.” Alexei thinks for a moment. “Their kids, as in... Both of their kids?” Murray laughs. “No. Joyce has two kids, Will and Johnathan, and Hopper adopted some kid named Eleven.” “Oh.” Alexei’s forehead suddenly creases. “Wait, did you say Eleven?” Murray nods, looking just a little bit confused. “Does she have any ... abilities?” “You mean like special powers?” “Yeah.” “She can move things with her mind, and she can also find people remotely from a photograph. How did you know?” “The lab in Hawkins, it was run by Dr. Brenner. He had made a deal with some of the lead scientists from the project. He would train these children as weapons in exchange for something.” “Wait, Dr. Brenner was working with you commies?? And what did he want in exchange?” “I don’t know. I only became their lead scientist recently, and by then the deal had been ended, presumably because he already got what he wanted.” Murray looked confused and excited at the same time, realizing that his conspiracy theory was indeed correct. “Are there still children with these powers out there? In Russia?” Alexei sighed, as though lost in thought. He hesitated, but after a moment he replied. “Yes.” “Do you know where they’re being kept?” It seemed to Murray as though those words triggered something inside Alexei. His usually happy face was now a mask of fear and anguish. “Alexei? What’s wrong? Did- did I say something?” Alexei replies after a moment, his voice low and sad. “No. I don’t know where they are.” Murray studies him for a moment. “Alexei, you can trust me. Please, tell me what happened.” Alexei’s voice waivers. “They- they took my sister. I tried so hard to get her back, to find out where they were keeping them, but no one would tell me.” He paused. “Finally, I was told by the government that I would be allowed to get my sister back if I could make a machine for them. I- I thought it would be easy enough. I’d been trained by all of the best scientists, I should have been able to do it. I c-couldn’t. Now my sister will be stuck there forever.” Alexei sighs. “If only I had been good enough. It’s my fault that she’s still there. I had a chance to get her out, and I failed.” Alexei leans into Murray, crying. Murray looks at Alexei, wishing more than anything that he could do something to help. “It’s okay, Alexei,” he whispers. “It’s okay.” 

Alexei wakes up on the couch the next morning, having eventually fallen asleep crying. He looks around and sees Murray on the phone. Murray notices that he is awake. “I just called Joyce,” he says. “I told her that we were busy and to come tomorrow instead. I thought you might want to be alone.” “Thank you,” Alexei replies, gesturing for Murray to come sit next to him. Murray sits down, unsure of what to say. Finally he says “Alexei, about last night, I just want to say that I’m sorry about what happened. I want you know that I’ll always be here for you, and I’m sure that nothing’s your fault, even if it might seem that way. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to help, but if there, I’ll do my best.” Alexei means in closer to Murray. “Murray... thanks you for what you said, but it is my fault. I should have been able to make the machine, I should have been able to save her.” Not knowing what to say next, Alexei added “My sister. Her name was Khristina.” Murray wrapped his arm around Alexei, hoping that it would help calm him down. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, but what was the machine they wanted you to make?” “They wanted something that would allow them to go back in time, t-to change things that had happened.” “Then it’s no wonder why you couldn’t make it! That’s not even possible!” Alexei muttered something and looked down at the floor. “What is it?” asked Murray. Alexei sighed. “Time travel. That was Khristina’s power.”

**Author's Note:**

> Eeeeeeeee!!!! I had so much fun writing this and I hope you guys liked it as well! Before I wrote this, I read a bunch of other Alexei fics, and although I loved all of them, I wanted to come up with something different that hadn’t been used before. It took me a while to come up with this plotline, but I definitely think it was worth it. I’m not exactly sure how long this series will be, but it will probably be at least 4 to 5 parts, and probably more if I can still think of new plots. As for Khristina, I just needed a name to use, but she will definitely show up later in the series. Any suggestions and/or constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!


End file.
